Home is a step for victims seeking to get selves free of sex trafficking

By Abe Levy :
April 6, 2013
: Updated: April 6, 2013 10:54pm

Beth Saxton arranges items in the kitchen at the All Things New House. She persuaded her church to donate about $20,000 toward interior decorating at the old convent.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

Lindsey Wright, left, regional administrative director of the All Things New House, and founder Linda Caswell converse in the facility's dining room on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. The facility is a Christian safe house for women victimized by the sex trafficking trade.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

Beth Saxton places flowers in a room at the All Things New House on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. The facility is a Christian safe house for women victimized by the sex trafficking trade.

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For decades, a two-story convent sheltered nuns ministering in the city's impoverished neighborhoods.

By month's end, the old building will open up to women working to be free of sex trafficking.

Its six bedrooms have brand-new linens, comforters and pillows. Each has a personal sink and space for cribs. The floors have new carpet.

The convent-turned-safe-house is the handiwork of All Things New, a Christian ministry based in Oklahoma City and founded by Linda Caswell in 2008. She's relocating headquarters here and joining a countywide effort to combat the sex trade.

“It's been a lot of work but I've seen so much of the community of San Antonio pull together to make this happen,” said Caswell, 59, herself prostituted years ago. “It is a realization of a dream.”

A second unit is set for completion here in June. The facilities are believed to be the city's only residences solely dedicated to help this population. Referrals will come from law enforcement agencies and other authorities nationwide, she said.

Human trafficking is estimated to be a $32 billion industry worldwide. Texas and local officials are working to protect victims, foreign and domestic, and raise awareness.

The Bexar County district attorney's office's prostitution caseload prompted it to form a human trafficking unit last year.

Many cases stem from teens and children not attending school and devoid of parental supervision, said Kirsta Melton, an assistant district attorney in the human trafficking unit.

“They are easy prey. They are the kids no one will miss if they don't show up at home,” she said. “They are being trafficked in our city and our county and our neighborhoods. That's a message San Antonio needs to hear loud and clear.”

The safe houses could not arrive here sooner, according to the South Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking, a network of public and private agencies and individuals.

“I think it's phenomenal what (Caswell) is doing because we need everyone on board,” said Elizabeth Crooks, founder of Embassy of Hope Center, a Christian ministry helping victims at a drop-in facility.

Its residential program had to close after three years for lack of funding, she said.

This issue for Caswell is personal.

As a younger woman, she was pimped in the French Quarter of New Orleans, she said, lured by cash, then forced by threats.

She escaped to rural Kansas and a new life with her two children. She studied to be a nurse, and through an instructor's influence, shed her atheism to attend church.

After working in prison ministries, she joined Concerned Women for America as the socially conservative organization's Oklahoma director. That job led her to start safe houses there.

Beth Saxton persuaded her 50-member Alamo Heights church, Kingdom Life Fellowship, to donate about $20,000 toward interior decorating at the old convent.

Her mom, Roxanne Spradlin of Temple, did custom paintings. San Antonio businesses have pitched in.

In the kitchen, fresh tulips rest in a Pellegrino bottle near pineapple and orange mint sprouts. On the counter is a new Keurig coffee maker and a pink Kitchen Aid mixer. In the dining room is a long table crafted from recycled red oak by local woodworker Attie Yonker.

“I just loved the idea of the house being something that could feel like a home rather than something mish-mashed together,” said Saxton, 32, a stay-at-home mom and one of the many volunteers drawn to the project.

Protestant and Catholic clergy have agreed to lead worship and prayer. The ministry still needs professional counselors, Caswell said, for long-term healing and building trust.

The second-floor chapel gives her peace about the future. It has pictures of St. Mary and Mother Theresa. Outside on a light switch plate is an image of Christ and a prayer, left from the building's days of active convent life.